


The Ways of the Force

by Chochos



Series: Swan Queen Bits [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Swan-Mills Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-27
Updated: 2014-04-27
Packaged: 2018-01-21 01:29:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1532654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chochos/pseuds/Chochos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Struttin' about without one's heart can be dangerous to our loved ones, and Regina realized she can't take that risk. Post Bridge Scene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Jealous Padawan

**Author's Note:**

> OUAT, Fairytale characters, Disney, not mine. Just fiddling with them for creative/entertainment purposes.

"I need my heart back."

The hooded thief stopped on his tracks and turned around to the sound of those words, perfectly uttered by plump, dead serious lips.

"Regina." Robin spoke, a manly smirk gracing his features, going straight into flirt-mode. The woman saw it coming a mile away but opted to ignore it.

"I haven't got time for games, Robin. Give me my heart back. It's a pressing matter."

The man recoiled a few steps, looking at the former Queen suspiciously and crossing his arms over his chest.

"And what may this pressing matter be, that I should return your heart although the Wicked Witch,  _ding dong_... isn't dead? How do I know you're really Mrs. Mills and not her very wicked sister in a certainly wicked disguise? This answer may better be a good one."

Really? Did he want a password too? At that moment, a string of words echoed through her mind.

_My super power may not be perfect. But with you, Regina, I always know when you’re lying. This time you’re not. You didn’t do it._

He was getting on her nerves.

"Robin, I nearly killed Emma Swan today. " His eyes bulged out of their sockets as he heard that. "Not willingly, but by acting fearlessly. I believed she had it in her so I just pushed and... I would never had let her fall in any case, but... It was dangerous. I can't afford to risk her like that again." Regina was in obvious distress as she somberly recounted the facts. He could sense it, so decided to cut to the chase and return the organ.

"Come. I buried it this way."

~*~

"Mmm... Regina? Are we having an early-morning training session? You know I'm not a... a... " a yawn engulfed all of her face, "a morning person."

Emma Swan had opened her apartment door in a white tee and Tigger-print underwear, still half asleep and with mused hair.

Regina ignored her (and, in an enormous display of self-control, ignored seven the Tigger underwear) and stepped inside.

"Where are Henry and the Uncharmings?"

"Well good morning to you too, Master." Emma had taken to calling her "Master" since they had begun their lessons. Something about some Jedi people and Forces and little green magicians. She had enough green with her sister, really, and besides, sometimes listening to Emma was almost like listening to their son babbling on about some story. She would find the resemblance endearing if her pupil didn't actually behave like a twelve year old and wasn't so easily distracted by the ideas in her mind about how the training was supposed to be. "They went for breakfast at Granny's."

"Without you?" She raised an eyebrow at her.

Emma smiled sheepishly. "Apparently I groaned at them something about letting the poor Padawan sleep."

Regina snorted on the inside but leveled the other woman with a glare on the outside. "Emma." She warned.

The blonde recoiled just a little bit. "I'm sorry..." she conceded, before whispering a tiny, barely audible "... Master."

Regina let a sincere smile adorn her face. So much for early-morning concealing. "My, my, our mighty savior is a five year old. Shouldn't we be delighted."

She was, really. Delighted by Emma's magic progress, and all-around demeanor. And reappearance, if she was to be honest.

Which she wasn't going to be. Not anytime soon.

"Yeah you should!" The blonde smiled back, proudly. "The Force is strong in this one." she added, pointing at herself and grinning like a madwoman.

Who new sleepy Emma Swan was so annoying and dorky and adorable?

Regina shook her head. Clearly all the heart pulling and returning was doing a number on her.

"But seriously, are we really having a morning lesson? 'Cause we should totally eat before the magic happens. Did you eat? I can make us some french toasts." Regina was about to interject, but Emma wasn't having any of it. "And save the snotty remarks about my cooking, it's just toast. Besides I vastly improved over the last year." She challenged her with a look, but then her eyes softened at the brunette. "Although you surely had something to do with that."

Regina felt a pang within her chest. Didn't she get all the dirt off her heart before putting it back? She made a mental note to check it again later.

During their talk they had moved over to the kitchen counter, with Emma holding a pan in her left hand, offering to cook for her, and Regina sitting in a stall across from the blonde.

"I haven't eaten, and I've worked up quite an appetite thus far. French toast would be more than adequate. But before that, Emma." The mood turned serious real quick, so the younger woman left the pan to the side and promptly seated across the former mayor, focusing all her attention on her. Regina raised her hands, ungloved her right one, and grabbed Emma's. "I was reckless in taking you over that falling bridge, I became so throughly enthralled by the prospect of getting your magic out that I put you in a dangerous circumstance. I completely believed in your ability to pull it off, but I wasn't in my right mind to measure the consequences. At the end of the day, it worked, but it wasn't worth the risk. What I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry, Emma. I've already seen to it so that it won't happen again."

Emma was taken aback by such a lengthily apology by the brunette, but mostly by the regretful part of it. Regina had never apologized to her before. Ever. A few "thank you's" here and there, but an apology? Not really. Maybe when Henry had been in danger and she had saved the day? She couldn't bet on it though. Honestly, she couldn't bet on anything in that moment, because the touch of the former queen was warming her palm up, and she could feel the other woman's... energy? Essence? Going up from her hand, spreading all over her body. She was instantly engulfed in a warm, fuzzy feeling that left her really relaxed and not thinking very straight.

"Huh... Regina, you..." Emma made an effort to gather her bearings and continued. "You don't have to apologize. The methods are kinda harsh, but I guess every real training is. I never for one moment thought you would simply let me fall off that bridge."

Regina raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at her. Emma acknowledged the gesture.

"Ok, maybe my screams as I began falling told otherwise, but still. I was fully expecting you to poof me up if I didn't make it. But I did. Jedi knight style." She finished, moving her free hand - the one that the brunette wasn't currently  **still**  holding - like she was controlling some sort of power. Probably 'The Force', Regina thought as she tried to interrupt her, but Emma, once again, wouldn't allow it. "I trust you." She affirmed, and softly stroked the brunette's hand with her thumb.

The former mayor's eyes were brimming with turmoil. Emma, acting on impulse and totally unaccountable for her acts as the magic flowing through her connection with the other woman was making her feel unspeakable things, raised her free hand to gently cup Regina's cheek.

"What is troubling you?"

In that moment, Regina, only god knows why, leaned almost imperceptibly into her touch and then retreated, releasing Emma's other hand in the process.

"Maybe I don't trust myself." She answered, sounding defeated.

"What do you mean?" Emma missed the connection instantly, but the lack of it dissipated the mist of fuzzy feelings that had previously clouded her mind and she was therefore able to continue her line of questioning.

"I tend to be reckless when I'm not wearing my heart on my chest." Upon hearing those words, Emma's eyes travelled down to said chest, her cheeks flared up, and then she settled on Regina's face again, hopefully for the remainder of their conversation. The former Mayor kept talking. "I never should have engaged in a magic lesson with you without it."

"Why on earth would you remove your own heart?" The blonde seemed intrigued by the idea.

"My...  _sister_... was after it. You do recall she is indeed the Wicked Witch of the West, don't you? She procured a lion's courage, a scarecrow's brain, therefore all what was missing was the tinman's heart. Or should I say tinwoman's? Consequently I removed mine as a safety measure, which was actually a really good idea, because it turned out I was right." She explained.

Emma, on the other hand, was far from done.

"Where were you keeping it? Why didn't you tell me this before? Doesn't it hurt going around  _without your heart in your chest_? 'Cause sure has hell it hurt when your mother just  _tried_  removing it from me, I can't begin to imagine how hard it must be to go around struttin' the streets without it!" The blonde was getting frantic, fast. Regina rose to keep up.

"It doesn't hurt that much once it's out, it just dims every emotion, the world feels rather dull all of the time. I didn't tell you because you did not need to worry about something else at the time, and you would have been against the idea, tried to find another way around it and I would have ended up either fighting you in an endless argument or losing my heart by agreeing with you. And finally, and for the record I want to make it clear that you asked me three questions in a row in less than 5 seconds, I left it with someone I trusted for safekeeping."

"Hold your horses." The blonde seemed rather upset. "Who is this 'someone' you entrusted  **your heart**  with, someone apparently more worthy of your trust than  **me** , considering the fact that he/she knew of this little trick of yours way before yours truly while I'm just being told about it?"

Regina was astounded by the freezing tone in which Emma had pronounced the latter, almost like a scorned lover demanding explanations from her cheating loved one. The mere thought of it was preposterous; she wasn't cheating on Emma because, hell, they weren't a couple! So that last thought made her hold her ground and simply and nonchalantly state,

"Robin. Robin Hood."

Regina couldn't have been prepared for what ensued. It was like someone had flipped over a switch and all hell had broke loose.

" _Robin Hood?_  As in, 'Robin Hood and the Merrymen', 'Robin of Loxley'?" The blonde's eyes were threatening to come out of their sockets. "How on earth could you entrust your heart, YOUR HEART of all things, to that... that... common thief!" She tried to find a worst insult but her mind was reeling, with mostly the letters "NO" repeating themselves over and over, wrecking havoc in her brain.

Regina was taken aback by all the commotion. "Emma, calm down. I fail to see the big issue here. He is a friend who helped me in my moment of need, stored my heart somewhere safe and then returned it when I asked him to. All is well, Zelena's plans are thwarted for the time being, and we've come up with a new strategy to defeat her. No one got hurt, and what's done it's done. Why does this matter so much to you?"

Emma was startled by the question because, actually, it was a very good one. Why did it matter to her if there was some shady character in green tights trying to woo her son's mother away? It wasn't any of her business. Why should she care? Why should she feel a lump constricting her throat? Why would she want to throw Regina out of her apartment and slam the door in her face and sing  _What doesn't kill you makes you stronger_  while she cried on her shower?

 _Wait, what?_  Just where did that pop up from?

Even though her mind was backstabbing her, Emma didn't take long to reply. "You are totally right. This doesn't concern me. He might be a poor choice but he is  _your_  poor choice." Regina looked appalled at that. "We may have known the guy for the entirety of two days, know nothing about his background considering he is a newcomer in town because, hey, I would have picked up on the tights the first time around, but, you're right, who cares? He might not even be Robin Hood for all we know, and turn out to be a flying monkey in disguise, but then again, hey, why would we doubt the guy? He wears tights and hops around in the forest with a group of 'merrymen' in the same kind of outfit, so, you know, totally cool guy. We should ask him to guard all our hearts, including Henry's." Appalled turned to anger in the brunette's features as Emma kept dissing Hood. "Oh, wait, we can't do that because of the protection spell, but I guess  _Robin_ " She pronounced his name slowly, disdain filling each letter, "already knows all about it, considering you're, like, BFFs and stuff. Maybe we could ask him to babysit Henry instead?" The woman was clearly on a roll, but the former Mayor wasn't gonna have any of it.

"Miss Swan, must you always be  **this**  insufferable?" Regina had heard enough nonsense for her whole week. And she even hadn't talked to Snow yet.

"Me? Insufferable? Regina,  **you**  are the one that's acting poorly. You are putting  **our**  family on the line just because you have the hots for some guy!"

The hots for some...? The gall of this woman!

"What? No, seriously, did you have a concussion you didn't tell me about? Because it would be the only logical explanation for this fit of... complete and utter madness that you're exhibiting right now, Miss Swan." Regina grabbed her purse, that had come to rest on the couch upon entering the apartment, and stood regally. "I don't know what I was thinking, coming down here to apologize, when I already know all I can expect from you are the acts of a barbarian. Suits me well." She looked down on Emma as she saw herself to the door.

The blonde was seething. She had picked a fight with the brunette and wasn't entirely sure why, but boy was she mad. She figured she couldn't let the other woman get the last word on the matter, so she screamed at her back as she was leaving,

"Yeah, and I don't know what  **I**  was thinking, taking magic lessons from the  _Evil Queen_  herself and treating you like an Obi-wan of sorts when all you've ever been is a half-assed Darth Vader at most!"

Emma's heart skipped a beat. She had overdone it.

Regina turned over, her hand frozen on the door knob, a look of hurt flashing briefly across her eyes. Emma confirmed right then that she had taken it too far, but she didn't get to apologize before she found herself poofed in a ball of purple smoke out of the apartment and straight into the ocean, by the docks, in just her -now transparent- white tee and her -now soaked but still very visible- Tigger underwear. The worst part was that the feeling of embarrassment that crossed over her heart didn't hold a candle to the one of dread of having to apologize to Regina and overall, even look her in the eyes again.

"Well, hell. I guess I had it coming."


	2. The Master's Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's apology-time for one Emma Swan. Can she stop making Regina feel mad and make her feel awesome instead?

As one dripping Emma Swan removed herself from the cold ocean waves, she couldn't help but wonder about the events of her early morning. How did this happen? One moment they were holding hands and cupping cheeks and feeling magic flow freely through them and the next she was enraged in a fiery rush of jealousy and then dropped in freezing water, their arrangement over.

Oh, shit. She had to fix things. But how?

~*~

Back at Town Hall, things weren't fixing themselves at all. Regina had entered her office with a murderous look on her face (directed to no one in particular, as there wasn't any appointed secretary to glare at yet) and closed the door after her with a purple swirl of magic.

As she seated herself by her desk, the same thoughts that had plagued her on her way there took center stage in her mind once again. Infuriating, unnerving, obnoxious Emma Swan! How did she dare? Spewing profanities at her like she was some harlot or some teenager frolicking over a boy! If she hadn't been SO upset she could have sworn the blonde was throwing a fit of jealousy over her but...

But that was unthinkable...

Or was it?

_"Me? Insufferable? Regina, **you**  are the one that's acting poorly. You are putting  **our**  family on the line just because you have the hots for some guy!"_

"Our family."

She had said "our family." Not just "Henry", or "our son", but, "our family."

What did that mean?

And, worst of all, why did it make her so happy in retrospective?

No! No! She hated Emma Swan. With a passion! Now more than ever! She didn't want to be a part of any family with her!

The door opened slowly, catching Regina's attention and showing an hesitant Emma Swan in usual skinny jeans and red leather attire. She let out a tiny "Hi" and, after what seemed like ages, entered the mayoral office. The town still needed to be run, and the Charmings had recognized that Regina was the fittest candidate for all the bureaucracy that doing just that implied, seeing as she had been leading the show for 28 years. That's why Emma knew she'd find her there midmorning, rummaging through some papers.

The brunette looked at her briefly and came back  ~~to pretending~~  to work. Emma's face fell a little more, but she cautiously approached the desk either way.

"Regina..." she started, the former's mayor's eyes still glued to some random paperwork. Emma braced herself, took a deep breath and continued. "I'm sorry. I know I was way out of line, okay? I wasn't fair to you and I screwed up. I'm truly sorry." The blonde kept being ignored. "Please, Regina... look at me."

At that, the brunette did look up, and the sadness in her glistening eyes almost drove Emma to the ground. She looked like she was holding back her tears and it made the blonde want to dig up a hole and die. Totally not good.

"Oh my God, Regina, seriously, you know I say stupid shit sometimes, please forgive me! I didn't mean to hurt you." Her hand traveled of her own accord down to the brunette's cheek, but she swiftly turned her face away from her, a hard look on her face.

"Emma. Just apologizing doesn't make everything magically ok. Back at your apartment you suggested I would put Henry's safety in danger because I was lovestruck for some toy-boy."

"I didn't actually say toy-" The blonde tried to intervene.

"Quiet. I'm not done speaking. For starters, you don't know Robin Hood yet you treated him like garbage and you were very verbal about it." The former sheriff had to swallow her 'like  **YOU**  know him very well' reply down her throat. "This is uncanny of you, Emma. You always seem to give people the benefit of the doubt. Why should Robin be any different? Is it because he tried to befriend me? Does anyone who shows any kind of deference towards me become automatically suspicious in your book?"

Befriend you my ass, Emma thought. He just wants to get into your pants and I will not, shall not...! "Regina, it's not like that. We've come a long way, you know my feelings toward you have nearly done a one-eighty-"

"Oh, have they?" The former queen interrupted her. "Because this feud you have with Robin is just the tip of the iceberg of my  _malaise_  with you. I thought we were really starting to know each other, Miss Swan, to  _understand_  one another." Emma's eyes bore into hers at the statement, afraid of what had yet to come out of that perfect, royal mouth. "But after this morning, what I've come to think is that you don't know me at all." There it was. The blonde had to bite her lower lip in order to stop it from quivering, hoping against hope that she wouldn't draw blood from it so that Regina wouldn't notice. But she did. She always did notice every little thing about Emma Swan, whether she wanted it or not. Nonetheless, the blonde had crossed a line and she just had to know; therefore, Regina continued her exchange, anger, but also sadness and disappointment flashing through her glimmering eyes, looks that Emma also could read and that drove a bullet straight through her heart. "I mean, really? After all we've been through since we've known each other, how could you possibly imagine any version of events where I'll jeopardize  _our son's_  wellbeing over a man or over anything on any realm?"

Regina's voice, that had kept its bothered tone until then, cracked at the edges during those last words, her hopelessness over the situation seeping through. If Emma wasn't going to trust her about Henry, then what chances had she of being trusted about anything else? And when had earning the blonde's trust become so damnably important for her? Somewhere down the line something must have changed between them. It must have. Because if that wasn't the case, then Emma's now-red eyes, brimming with tears, mimicking her own and looking back at her full of sorrow and regret, wouldn't make any sense at all.

Emma left the spot where she had been standing through their discussion and lowered herself to the ground on one knee, to look at the other woman,  _the other mother of her son_ , at eye level.

"Regina, that is  _so_  not what I meant. I  **do**  trust you to keep Henry safe, above everything else. Hell, I even trust you to keep  _me_  safe." The brunette gave her a sceptical look that prompted her to elaborate. "Hey..." She took a leap of faith and grabbed Regina's hand between her own. "I do. That's why you didn't have to apologize about the whole bridge thing. But I'm glad you did, because it's another proof of how far we've come. Regina,  _I know you_. Please don't doubt that. I know what makes you happy, what worries you, what makes you tick, how to rile you up, how to calm you down. I know these things. It's impossible not to know them after having been swept up by 'Hurricane Henry' a couple years ago." The brunette actually tried to suppress a chuckle at that, which made Emma feel like she was getting her point across. "Because he is  _our_  son, as much mine as he is yours. There is so much of you in him, and I have learned so much about you through him and through your interactions with him. I have seen how deeply you care about him, how truly you love him. I know he is  _the thing you love most_. It couldn't be any other way, you're his mom!"

The former mayor's eyes dropped to the floor with a sigh before going back to hold the Savior's. She didn't take her hand away. "Then what did you mean, Emma, when you said I was putting our family on the line?"

Emma's heart skipped a beat; even the magic freely flowing between their conjoined hands once again couldn't ease her rapidly raising panic.

"Huh... well... I... I meant that..."

"And I still fail to comprehend what does my relationship with Robin have to do with any of this." Regina was relentless about getting to the bottom of things. Emma felt her jealousy spike once more at the word 'relationship', and she was too late to realize that through her connection with the other woman, the brunette was also able to feel it, realization hitting her like a ton of bricks, her eyes widening almost comically. "Emma, are you-"

The door to the office flung open, cueing David's swift entrance, sword in hand.

"What are you two doing here?" Emma stood up like she had been burned and Regina was still so utterly shocked by her sudden realization-that-could-change-everything that she wasn't even able to react accordingly. "No, you know what, don't answer that, we have no time to lose. Rumplestilskin in on the loose wreaking havoc on the town. I've called you nonstop, don't you have your cellphones on? Come with me!"

As the two women followed suit, they took a moment to check that indeed neither of them were carrying their phones. Meanwhile, inside the Charming's apartment, a couple of mobiles showed a number of lost calls in their screens, sitting atop a kitchen counter, undisturbed. 


End file.
